Vast amounts of low grade carbonaceous deposits such as lignites and peats exist in the United States, and elsewhere. Peat is considered the lowest grade, essentially the first stage in the development of coal from vegetable matter. Lignites tend to disintegrate when exposed to water, and generally contain such high moisture and ash contents that mining, shipping, storage, and preparation for fuel usages tend to make them uneconomic materials. However, the literally trillions of tons of lignitic material available in the United States, usually fairly close to the surface so that strip-mining is feasible and practical, present an attractive resource of carbon, providing adequate methods can be developed for converting the carbon into more useful and transportable higher quality fuels, both liquids and gases, which can be utilizable in existing fuel burning equipment or refining processes.